Raksha Bandhan box office day 5: As Akshay Kumar’s film struggles to hit Rs 50 crore lifetime, Aanand L Rai’s production house celebrates performance
The negative buzz around Aamir Khan-starrer Laal Singh Chaddha‘s box office performance is overshadowing the absolute debacle that is Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan. The usually dependable Aamir now has two major back-to-back flops across four years, but the prolific Akshay has three box office bombs in 2022 alone.
After a soft debut on Thursday, Raksha Bandhan flopped further with a paltry collections between Rs 5.7 crore and Rs 6.1 crore on Monday, according to a Bollywood Hungama report. The film, directed Aanand L Rai, made Rs 8.20 cr on day one, Rs 6.40 cr on Friday, Rs 6.51 cr on Saturday, and Rs 7.05 crore on Sunday. Raksha Bandhan’s running total now stands at Rs 34 crore. It joins Laal Singh Chaddha on the rare l of films to have fallen on a national holiday as big as Independence Day.
To make matters worse, the release strategies of both films were designed not only to capitalise on the extended weekend, but also the Raksha Bandhan holiday. With multiplex audiences having given up on the film already, it remains to be seen if viewers in the mass belts of North India are able to help the film crack the Rs 50 crore mark, which is currently looking difficult.
Raksha Bandhan is poised to become Akshay Kumar’s biggest flop of the year, behind even Bachchhan Paandey and Samrat Prithviraj. Aanand L Rai’s Colour Yellow Productions appears to be in some kind of denial, however. The production house has been sharing the box office figures of the film on Instagram, using adjective like ‘overwhelming’ and ‘stellar’. One social media post read, “Anmol #DhaagonSeBaandhaa hua bhai-beheno ka yeh rishta, Box Office pe macha raha hai shor (This film about sibling love is making noise at the box office).”
The reviews haven’t been kind either. The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta gave the film 1.5 stars, and wrote, “Do the filmmakers truly believe that such low-rent family dramas, with their uneasy mix of humour and crassness, is the way out for a beleaguered Bollywood?”
